Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy announced Sunday that the budget deal reached over the weekend will include the largest transportation investment in the state’s history. According to the Governor’s press release:

The budget agreement includes billions for transportation over the next decade, by taking a half a cent off the sales tax – which will remain flat at 6.35% – and dedicating it to modernizing our rail, rebuilding our roads, and transforming the way we travel.  This funding will mean that transportation will be fully funded for nearly a decade, allowing the state to plan and design projects in Governor Malloy’s long-term vision, as well as funding to complete many of them.

This new revenue stream, along with existing state and federal funding sources, is expected to raise $10 billion over the next five years and will fund seven to 10 years of the statewide 30-year transportation vision. With this new funding approved, the State can get to work on fixing structurally-deficient bridges, replacing outdated Metro-North infrastructure and expanding bus service. But the General Assembly must ensure that this new source of transportation funding will be used exclusively for transportation purposes.

Revenue collected via the state gas tax — and soon a portion of sales tax income, too — goes into Connecticut’s Special Transportation Fund, but those monies aren’t exactly secure. In 2013 for example, the General Assembly approved a budget which transferred about $110 million from the Special Transportation Fund into the general fund. A “lockbox” proposal aimed at preventing such transfers was introduced in 2014, but failed to win the support of Senate Democrats.

In the Governor’s State of the State address earlier this year, he proposed a similar lockbox measure which would restrict the use of transportation funds solely for transportation uses. The lockbox measure has taken two forms: HJ63, a resolution which protects transportation funds by way of a constitutional amendment (to be approved by voter referendum), and HB6857, which would restrict the use of the Special Transportation Fund by statute.

The former was tabled for the House Calendar after it cleared the Government Administration and Elections Committee on May 19; the latter cleared the Transportation Committee in March, but has been on the House Calendar since April 1. With the 2015 legislative session coming to an end this Wednesday, the time is now for Connecticut’s elected leaders to push this important lockbox legislation forward.